Call it Stockton to Mufasa.

Salt Lake City expects the expiring bond on its NBA arena to be the key assist in funding a $100 million theater to bring "The Lion King," "Wicked" and other Broadway mega-hits to Main Street.

At the same time, a developer wants to implode the former Salt Lake Tribune building, erect a 25-story modern high-rise in its place, then connect the tower to the theater via a glass galleria filled with shops and a winter garden.

Despite the cratered economy, the vision remains Mayor Ralph Becker’s highest priority — quizzically, critics say — yet pitfalls abound.

City Hall is at least $20 million shy of the overall price tag. Nobody can say for sure if the 2,500 seats would sell. Officials cannot decide whether to put the theater on the corner of 100 South and Main or to swap places with the office tower planned a half-block south. And the city doesn’t yet own the land.

But Becker is armed with an encyclopedic study that promises the project will generate $2.4 million after five years, create 283 permanent jobs and funnel nearly $15 million a year into the economy.

"We’re missing out on a huge opportunity for Salt Lake City," the mayor says. "We’re past ready to be able to have a theater like this and to make it work."

About $80 million could come from property taxes "recommitted" from the Central Business District, once the city’s bond to upgrade roads and sewer lines for EnergySolutions Arena is paid off in 2015 (when the theater would open). That includes the boosted values from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ $2 billion City Creek Center.

"It’s not a tax increase," says Ben McAdams, Becker’s senior adviser and a Democratic senator in the Legislature. "This is existing tax revenue for what was deemed important 23 years ago as a downtown economic-development tool. It’s just reapportioning that to today’s downtown catalyst."

One advantage of the recession is that both construction costs and interest rates are low, said McAdams, a former Wall Street bond attorney who argues that "window" could close anytime. "The difference between now and later could be one of $25 million more."

Still, the total price balloons to $120 million when factoring in the city’s goal to extend a midblock pedestrian crossing from the dormant Utah Theatre to Regent Street — and to spruce up Regent to draw shops and eateries. City leaders hope to tap private donors, federal tax credits, naming-rights dollars and perhaps state assistance to bridge that funding gap.

Becker remains concerned about price but stresses his team has done a "really hard number crunch" on what he calls a community investment.

"It helps our economic development in a very powerful way," Becker says. "It will bring in visitors who will come in and spend money and have a good time, and we’ll have all the economic spinoffs of that."

But is it prudent to push for another high-priced arts venue while families and the market grapple with the aftermath of the Great Recession?

"The presumption here is that it’s not a zero-sum game," says city Economic Development Director Bob Farrington, who points to the growing slate of crowded downtown concerts between Pioneer Park and a remodeled Gallivan Center. Utah’s capital, he notes, has a 30-year history of selling tickets for Broadway theater.

"It’s not starting from ground zero," he says. "It’s expanding the store to make more sales."